Ehsan Danish

Ehsan Danish (born Ehsan-ul-Haq; died 22 March 1982, Lahore) was a self-taught Urdu poet, prose writer, linguist and lexicographer known as Shair-e-Mazdoor, the Poet of the Workmen. Born in Kandhla, Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, into a poor family, he could not continue formal schooling and taught himself Arabic and Persian. Migrating to Lahore, he worked for years as a labourer — mason, painter's assistant, watchman and more — before establishing himself as a writer and founding the publishing house Maktaba-e-Danish. He wrote more than 80 books of poetry, prose, linguistics and lexicography, including the classic autobiography Jahan-e-Danish, and received the Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1978. His early verse was romantic; his mature poetry spoke for labourers and common people in plain, direct Urdu.